矿物-微生物相互作用研究的新利器:三维原子探针(APT)  

A New Tool for Unraveling Mineral-Microbe Interactions:Atom Probe Tomography(APT)

作　　者：方谦 杨僚 仇鑫程 杨浩[1] 洪汉烈 陈中强 Fang Qian;Yang Liao;Qiu Xincheng;Yang Hao;Hong Hanlie;Chen Zhong-Qiang(State Key Laboratory of Geomicrobiology and Environmental Changes,China University of Geosciences(Wuhan),Wuhan 430078,China)

机构地区：[1]中国地质大学(武汉)地质微生物与环境全国重点实验室,湖北武汉430078

出　　处：《地球科学》2025年第3期1201-1219,共19页Earth Science

基　　金：国家自然科学基金项目(Nos.41930322,42102031).

摘　　要：矿物-微生物相互作用是地球系统中最为活跃的地质动力之一,对地球演化过程具有深远的影响,也是矿物学和地质微生物学领域最重要的交叉研究方向之一.要全面正确理解微生物与矿物之间的相互作用,重点之一在于揭示超微尺度下微生物如何影响矿物表面结构和物质组成的变化.尽管近年来矿物-微生物相互作用的研究取得了显著进展,但由于该相互作用涉及更小尺度的微观过程,在纳米甚至亚纳米尺度同时表征矿物结构、化学成分和微生物残存印记等方面仍面临巨大挑战,因此许多原理性和机制性问题依然亟待解决.近年来新兴的三维原子探针(APT)技术突破了这一分析极限,可在亚纳米(近原子)尺度实现对几乎所有元素/同位素同时成像与定量分析(检测限为10-6),可为重建矿物-微生物相互作用过程提供近原子尺度、高灵敏度分析.APT最初是在材料科学领域发展并得到广泛应用,近年来该技术在地球科学领域受到日益增多的关注.本文概述了APT的原理、发展和样品制备等基本内容,介绍了生物矿化的概念及相关研究,并重点讨论了APT技术在微生物矿化、地质微生物的残存信号识别、生物材料等矿物-微生物相互作用领域的重要应用.最后,客观总结了当前APT技术在矿物-微生物相互作用研究中的局限性和面临的问题,并展望这种超级原位微区分析技术在矿物-微生物研究领域的未来发展方向.Mineral-microbe interaction(MMI)is one of the most dynamic geological processes driving the evolution of Earth’s system,profoundly influencing Earth life’s evolutionary processes.MMIs are also a key research focus in mineralogy and geomicrobiology.To fully understand the interactions between microbes and minerals,one of the critical areas is to decode how microorganisms affect the structural and compositional changes on mineral surfaces at an ultra-microscopic scale.Although significant progress has been made in the MMI studies in recent years,major challenges still remain due to the microscopic processes occurring at nanoscale and even sub-nanoscale levels.Simultaneous characterization of mineral structures,chemical compositions,and microbial remnants at these scales remains difficult,leaving many fundamental mechanistic questions unresolved.The emerging three-dimensional atom probe technology(APT)overcomes these limitations.APT enables near-atomic scale imaging and quantitative analysis of nearly all elements/isotopes simultaneously,with a detection limit as low as 10⁻⁶.This provides near-atomic scale,high-sensitivity analysis for research into mineral-microbe interactions.Originally developed and widely applied in materials science,APT has attracted increasing attention in the field of Earth sciences in recent years.This paper provides an overview of the principles,development,and sample preparation involved in APT,introduces the concept of biomineralization and related studies,and focuses on the key applications of APT technology in fields such as microbial mineralization,identifying geological microbial remnants,and biomaterials related to mineral-microbe interactions.Finally,we objectively summarize the current limitations and challenges of APT technology in the study of mineral-microbe interactions and explore the future development directions of this advanced in-situ micro-area technique in the field of mineral-microbe research.

关 键 词：生物矿化 地质微生物 生物矿物 生物材料 跨圈层研究 纳米科学 矿物学 

分 类 号：P579[天文地球—矿物学]